U.S. Warnings to Syria Getting Attention
AP World News
By DONNA ABU-NASR 04/15/2003 18:00:29 EST
Mideast powers, including some friends of the United States, expressed alarm Tuesday over possible
U.S. action against Syria for allegedly sheltering ousted Iraqi leaders and sponsoring terrorism.
Iran quickly came to Syria's defense, saying it will employ all nonmilitary means to prevent a U.S.
attack on its ally. Iraq's neighbors are expected to discuss Washington's accusations when they meet
this week in Saudi Arabia.
In Damascus, few Syrians understand why President Bush is coming after them. Their country, they
feel, has cooperated in the war against terrorism, and gave Arab cover to U.N. Resolution 1441
demanding Saddam Hussein disarm or face the consequences.
"They are extremely disappointed," said Maggie Mitchell at the Washington-based Middle East
Institute, who recently met with officials in the Syrian capital. "They helped in the fight against al-Qaida
and they went against Syrian and Arab public opinion to back a resolution that the United States used
to go to war against Iraq."
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday rejected U.S. threats against Syria and called on
the United States and Britain to carry out a dialogue with Damascus.
"We reject the threats against Syria and we believe that the threats should stop," Qatari Foreign
Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani told reporters in Riyadh.
The foreign minister said the council has "good relations with the United States and the United
Kingdom and we are talking to them now on the Syrian issue."
U.S. officials in the past two days have accused Syria of sheltering Iraqi fugitives, possessing chemical
weapons and supporting terrorism.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, while emphasizing that the United States has no plans to go to war
with Syria, had this warning: "They should review their actions and their behavior, not only with respect
to who gets haven in Syria and weapons of mass destruction, but especially the support of terrorist
activity. ... We will examine possible measures of a diplomatic, economic or other nature as we move
forward."
The Syrians have flatly denied the allegations as misinformation inspired by its archenemy Israel.
"Even the Israelis will pay the price for it in the future if they don't tell their friends in Washington to
stop it," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said. "They (Americans) shouldn't encourage them.
... They are encouraging a very sinister game."
Relations between Syria and the United States have always been uneasy, complicated by Syria's
close ties to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and its hard-line stance on the Mideast peace
process.
Despite its outwardly inflexible attitude to the United States, Syria has always been careful to keep the
thin diplomatic ties from snapping.
In the 1991 Gulf War, Syria sent troops to join the U.S.-led campaign to oust Iraq from Kuwait. It has
shed most of the closed, socialist image that characterized it when it was a Soviet ally.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Syrian President Bashar Assad sent a warm letter of condolences to Bush,
and there was intelligence cooperation on terrorism. Syria has for years been watching the extremist
Muslim groups that it had fought in the 1980s.
In November, Syria stunned the Arab world by voting for the U.N. resolution against Iraq.
Complicating matters is that Assad is surrounded by an old guard who helped bring him to power after
the death of his father, Hafez Assad, in June 2000. The father took over in a bloodless coup in 1970
and maintained a vast army of secret police and informers. He was accused of jailing thousands of
political prisoners without trial.
For the old guard, close ties with the United States violate core principles of the ruling Baath party and
go against the image Syria has cultivated for decades as the champion of Arab rights.
They also aren't giving Assad, an eye doctor who came to power with little political experience, the
chance to introduce limited reforms.
Now, Syria finds itself squeezed from almost all sides: from Washington, the presence of U.S. troops
next door in Iraq, Israel to the south and Turkey, with whom Syria has water problems, in the north.
Syrian human rights activists say the best way out is toward democracy.
"The government needs to open up to the people and end its policy of repression and subjugation,"
said Haitham Maleh, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist.
Turki al-Hamad, a Saudi political analyst, said the United States is likely to hit Syria with a long list of
demands, including making peace with Israel, expelling militant Palestinian groups, ending support for
the militant group Hezbollah, and liberalizing the economy.
Those are a series of steps that Syria may find difficult to follow.
"In light of the gross imbalance of powers and the pathetic state of the Arab world, there may not be
any other choice," Jadallah Jbaii, a Syrian political analyst, said.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press Writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report from Damascus,
Syria.
siliconinvestor.com |
